[Lexicog] Re: When Semantics Doesn't Matter

[Hayim Sheynin]

Dear David and Fritz,

If anything, I intended that the original of some parts (like four synoptic  Gospels
and Acts) of the NT could be or might be written in Palestinian Aramaic, perhaps Galilean dialect. I know that most of the theologians today are convinced that
so called Q-text (a prototypal source of the NT) was written in Greek. But nobody saw this Q-text, and it seems to me logical  that it could be written in
the original language of Jesus Christ and his disciples. Until the earliest text found, my suggestion must remain as a suggestion. If the original text had be
written in Greek, I cannot understand an animosity of earlier Rabbis who saw
the Christian teaching as very harmful for Rabbinic Judaism. The Jews of Rabbinic period (i.e. Hellenistic and Roman periods) did not have easy access to Greek writings. If they knew Greek, this was a street language. It is true for Palestine, but it is different for Alexandria and North African Jewish settlements. 
Necessities of life pushed Greek words into Hebrew and Aramaic as loanwords,
however it is not a proof of Palestinian Jews' proficiency in Greek.

Hayim Sheynin 

David Frank <david_frank at sil.org> wrote:                                     
Fritz --
  
 I think what Scott meant was that the  New Testament as most people know it today -- i.e. in translation -- is derived  from the Greek (original). I understood his point to be that while the Old  Testament was originally written in Hebrew and Aramaic, the New Testament was  originally written in Greek.
  
 Hayim had an interesting theory that  what we call the New Testament may have originally been written in Hebrew. That  is an intriguing idea, but as far as I know it is just a theory or speculation,  though as you said, Fritz, there is sometimes evidence of a Hebrew  substratum. As we have been discussing idiomatic phrases, I understand  that "son(s) of" as in "sons of thunder," "son of perdition," etc. is a  Hebrew idiom that was carried over literally into the Greek New Testament  scriptures. But you know this better than I do, Fritz.
  
 I have sometimes said something  similar to what Hayim said. I have pointed out that the Greek New Testament  scriptures were a translation in themselves, in that the words of Jesus and his  followers would have been uttered in Aramaic but written down in Greek. Except  for those few cases that Hayim mentioned where the Aramaic utterances were  transliterated rather than translated.
  
 -- your friend and  colleague David Frank
  
    ----- Original Message ----- 
   From:    Fritz    Goerling 
   To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com    
   Sent: Saturday, June 30, 2007 6:40    PM
   Subject: RE: [Lexicog] Re: When Semantics    Doesn't Matter
   

      Sorry, Scott,  the NT was not derived from Greek    but written in Greek.
   Sometimes the Greek    shows a Hebrew substratum. The New Testament was 
   not translated from    Greek either but written in Greek. Paul is more known as    the
   apostle to the    Gentiles.
    
   Fritz    Goerling
    
            Hayim, I liked your points, point by point. 
I'm a    little confused though about your reference to the Bible 
translation. The    New Testament needs differentiation from the Old 
Testament. The New    Testament was derived from Greek, not Hebrew. It 
was clumped together with    the Old Testament, into what modern 
Christians call "The Bible." Hebrew    (Aramaic language), with Hebrew 
writing being the source text of the Old    Testament (written and 
spoken by Hebrews) -- was copied, text for text,    point by point, 
iota by iota........from generation to generation --    assumably from 
the hand of Moses himself. 
But the New Testament,    largely written by Paul the Apostle to 
Greek cities and Greek Christians,    was translated from Greek. 

Scott Nelson





 
     
                       

       
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